Feeling virtuous when you’re deveining that hapless shrimp? Discard that feeling, reports NewScientist (7 April 2018):
There’s an ironic twist to this picture. Let me know if you figure it out.
Credit: Organic FactsGlobally, [Robert Parker at the University of British Columbia and his colleagues] found that carbon emissions from fisheries rose by 28 per cent between 1991 and 2011, even though total catch has barely changed (Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0117-x). That contrasts with other foods, where improved efficiency has led to lower emissions per kilogram of product.
One reason is that we are eating more shrimp and lobster. Compared with beef, these have higher emissions per kilogram, partly because they are hard to catch. Most other fish are good choices for a climate-friendly diet. “The typical fish product is going to have a similar footprint to chicken, which is the most efficient land-based animal source,” says Parker. Some small fish, such as anchovies, do even better. The team is now developing a website that will let people look up the greenhouse gas footprints of different seafood.
The best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from seafood is to manage fisheries well. This will allow fish populations to rebuild to higher levels. “The more abundant your fish are, the easier it is to catch them,” says Ray Hilborn at the University of Washington in Seattle.
In other words, don’t eat so much fish. And don’t fish so inefficiently, which I would measure as non-target fish that are caught up in the nets and die as a result.
Or you can be like these fish biologists and simply cease eating fish.
